Over the last few years I have been asked many times about how I take my night shots. Mostly if it depends on the camera, the settings, the lenses and what not. Usually I don’t really answer the question. Because there is no real definitive answer.

What I can talk about is how I started out and what has become of my view of the night sky and night vision.

This hasn’t happened a lot lately. Having a job, a home to care for and lots of other things to do that arrive without warning, free time seems to be in short supply. So when the opportunity arises, I take it with both hands.

Last week we went for a short drive into the Whiteshell Provincial Park. Nothing fancy, just starting at Rennie and finishing on the other end of highway 307. When we arrived at Brereton Lake, we thought it would be full of people, swimmers and so on. After all the summer has been quite warm. Unfortunately, the recent t-storms have rendered the water pretty cold. As well as a bit murky.

It sounds like the title of a song. It might as well be, when the time from dusk till dawn is spend inside Winnipeg, shooting… For many people, being outside during the night is a “sin”: you should be at home, be with your family and enjoy the homely life. For photographers, this enjoyable, indispensable part of life must inexorably be supplemented with time outside. With a camera, of course.

While I don’t consider myself a photographer, that is, a professional one, I do like to go out during the night, shoot all kinds of cityscapes and landscapes and then come back to the comfort of my home.

We’ve all experienced this. Early morning, you get up, taking care of Nature’s business and you look outside to see… nothing. Everything is white and no way to see a hand in front of your eyes. Well, maybe I exaggerate a little here, but you get the idea. My usual reaction to this phenomenon is to get back to bed. Sometimes, however, the opportunity is too good to pass up and I go outside instead.

The last time this happened, my cat had woken me up, triggering nature’s calls and a serious invite to feed the furry animal. After that was taken care of, I looked outside and thought to myself: “Self, you should go outside and shoot some of this!”. So that’s what I did.